Tony Calo does what he loves: as the new race track announcer at Ellis Park

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) – If you were at Ellis Park this year or watched the races via simulcast, you may have noticed a different voice commentating on the races.

Tony Calo is the new track announcer at Pea Patch.

“I would listen to the announcers, Todd Creed and John Gibson, and then I would go home and do the races,” Calo said. “I would get my Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars and race them around my parents’ oriental rug in the dining room and give each car a little name, like a horse.”

After high school, Calo enrolled at Chico State, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, and while he was trying to figure it out, a good friend had a suggestion.

“One of my buddies said, ‘Hey, why don’t you try being a horse racing commentator?’ and I said, ‘You know what, I can do that.’ In 1992, after I dropped out of college, I wrote a letter and told everyone I was going to be a horse racing commentator. I practiced my craft under the tutelage of Michael Wrona, Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, who was also a big influence, Vic Stauffer, Luke Kruytbosch, a former commentator here. I just spent a lot of time talking on the phone into a tape recorder,” Calo said.

After two years of working on his craft, Calo finally got his breakthrough in 1994.

“I started in September 1992 and finally made my first visit to the Solano County Fair in 1994,” Calo said.

He then got a job at Arapahoe Park in Colorado before becoming an announcer at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields in California.

In 2008, he got the job of commentating on the events at the Finger Lakes Racetrack in northern New York State.

“It was a pretty good job and I was hoping it would land me in the NYRA (New York Racing Association). And even better, it brought me to the great state of Kentucky,” Calo said. “Horse racing is Kentucky. I told all my friends if you want to be in horse racing, you have to come to Kentucky.”

Calo spent 15 years in the Finger Lakes, so by any standard he brings 30 years of experience at the Ellis Park microphone and, of course, a style all his own.

“My style is a little different than others, but it’s like apples and oranges. We don’t want us all to be apples or oranges,” Calo said.

Calo is also the track announcer at Turfway Park and acts as a racing handicapper at the Churchill meetings.

All rights reserved.